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I nod. “I know, Dad. I know, and I want to know more, but I just as much don’t want to know more.”
Dad sighs. “I’m afraid some of these new developments are going to open up old wounds. Wounds I thought I’d buried forever.”
“I’m sorry,” Dale says.
“Not your fault. Neither of you. Please trust that your uncles and I thought we were doing what was best for the family. We had our spouses’ support. We wanted to wipe the slate clean, start fresh. The two of you would always have a past to contend with, but you didn’t need my past as well. The others? We thought we could spare them all of it.”
“You can’t run away from the past, Dad,” Dale says.
“I never thought I could. That part of my life is always with me, as it will always be with you. Your mother helped me a lot. Gave me something wonderful to live for. But even she couldn’t erase my past.”
“I understand that so much better now,” Dale says. “Because of Ashley and my feelings for her.”
“I may not have a Jade or an Ashley,” I say, “but I’ve chosen not to dwell on that horror. Is that so bad? And now, it’s all coming crashing back.”
“It doesn’t have to,” Dad says.
“How the hell can you say that? Our own father…” I exhale slowly, but my attempt at relaxation doesn’t slow the angry racing of my heart.
“See?” Dale says. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. How do you want it, Don? You say you no longer want my protection, but now you’re pissed that the horror is coming crashing back. If I hadn’t told you—”
“Shut up.” I thread my fingers through my hair. “Just shut the fuck up!”
Truth be told, I don’t know what I want. Do I want to go back ten minutes and have no clue about my birth father?
Yes.
No.
I don’t know.
“Don…” Dale begins.
“What? What now?”
“There’s something else.”
Dad shakes his head slightly at Dale. Does he really think I won’t notice?
“Keeping something else from me?”
“No,” Dale says. “It’s just… I had all of Floyd’s stuff hauled away to the dump. Without asking you. And I’m sorry.”
“Is that all? I don’t want any of his shit.”
Dale nods. “Good. It wasn’t really my place to do it all without you. If I’d known you’d be back to stay so soon, I’d have waited.”
“No big deal.”
Seriously. Like I care. Now that I know what the man did to us, I don’t want any remnant of him. If I could erase his DNA from my body, I would.
Dad sighs. “I shouldn’t have allowed this conversation to take place until after the party. This is all on me.”
Maybe he should have waited. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so adamant.
Maybe a lot of things.
“Come on, Don,” Dale says, not quite meeting my gaze. “Let’s put on a good show for Mom.”
I know my brother. I know that look in his eye.
There’s more. He hasn’t told me everything.
Well, he’s going to. Maybe not at this particular moment, but he will, damn it.
My blood is boiling. I want to strike out, but striking out at my brother and father won’t help. They’re the wrong targets.
I want to strangle the life out of my birth father.
But he has no life to give me. He’s gone.
I want to…
I want to…
I want to…
I jerk at a knock on the door. Probably Mom, wanting to know where I am. “For Christ’s sake, I’m coming!” I yell as I throw open the door.
But it’s not Mom.
Callie Pike stands on the other side, her mouth dropped open.
Chapter Eighteen
Callie
Donny’s hair is mussed, and his lips and cheeks are dark pink.
His hazel gaze sears into mine.
Still, though… I’ve never seen him look sexier.
“Your mom…” I draw in a deep breath. “She asked me to come get you guys.”
“Fine,” he says, grabbing my arm. “Let’s go.”
He drags me down the hallway and into a room. It’s a library. I inhale the leathery scent of bindings, the crisp scent of pages.
“What’s going—”
But then his lips are on mine.
Hard, fast, and needy.
I open, and his tongue slides into my mouth.
A kiss. This one just as scorching as the night before, but with an extra dose of aching rage.
He’s angry.
Angry about something. I don’t know what.
I don’t care what.
I care only about this kiss.
He walks forward, inching me backward until I hit a bookshelf. It grinds into the small of my back, but I ignore it.
We kiss and we kiss and we kiss, and just when I think he can’t kiss me any more deeply, he somehow does.
His groan rips through me, sets sparks skittering across my flesh.
Desire overwhelms me.
My nipples harden into tight nubs. My knees weaken.
My inner core lights on fire.
I feel him everywhere. In my mouth, my breasts, between my legs.
